U.S. envoy heads to Balkans to salvage peace pact

EXAMINER NEWS SERVICES

Published 4:00 am, Friday, February 9, 1996

1996-02-09 04:00:00 PDT BOSNIA -- SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - U.S. mediator Richard Holbrooke was ordered to return to Bosnia Friday in an effort to save U.S.-mediated peace accords that were in danger of collapsing.

NATO said Friday it had lost communications with top-level Bosnian Serbian military leaders, a development which the NATO ground commander in Bosnia termed ominous.

Bosnian Serbian military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic announced on Thursday he was breaking off all contact with NATO forces until Serbs held by the Bosnian government on suspicion of war crimes were released.

"We have a number of liaison officers who are in the Bosnian Serb military, with whom we inevitably have some contact, but in terms of the high-level, strategic-type contact that we had with them, there is none," said Lt. Gen. Sir Michael Walker, who is directing the efforts of the NATO-led Implementation Force that is enforcing the Dayton agreement.

Walker characterized the development as "an ominous sign" and a "direct breach" of the Bosnian peace accord.

Bosnian Serbian authorities threatened Thursday to detain Muslim and Croatian civilians in retaliation for the arrests of two of its senior officers accused of war crimes.

The threat followed the Serbs' decision to sever all contacts with the NATO-led peace force and the Muslim-led Bosnian government until the officers are freed.

Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, the region's main power broker, who is crucial to the peace accord's success, backs the Bosnian Serbs' decision to suspend talks, said sources in Belgrade who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Seeking to prevent a collapse of the peace process, Holbrooke was ordered to return to the Balkans within the next few days.

The pair were arrested Jan. 30 after making a wrong turn into government-held territory near Sarajevo. Further angering the Serbs, the arrests were endorsed by the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague, the Netherlands, which wants the two men held until it decides whether to indict them.

Mladic, who also has been indicted by the tribunal, banned civilians in Serbian territory from crossing Thursday into other parts of Bosnia. His earlier order to cease contact with the NATO-led force and the Bosnian government has halted implementation of the peace plan.

The International Red Cross and members of an international police force have seen Djukic and Krsmanovic at their prison in Sarajevo. But Red Cross spokeswoman Anne-Sophie Bonefeld said her colleagues had been denied permission to speak privately with Djukic or Krsmanovic, in violation of the Geneva convention on prisoners of war.

For updates on the Balkans,call CityLine at 808-5000 and enter 2190.&lt;